Talk:Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal

Maria Anna of Austria
'' In 1745 de Melo served as the Portuguese ambassador to Vienna. The Queen consort of Portugal, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, was fond of de Melo'' Maria Anna of Austria lived from 1610-1665???

i think it shoud be. Aleichem 15:27, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Political offices
In the Political offices section, where it says "Portuguese Ambassador to the United Kingdom", shouldn’t it say instead "Portuguese Ambassador to the Court of St James’s"? I believe the latter was after all the correct designation of the office, then, as is today.

This is because the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland presupposes (and rightly so) a moving Royal Court, which would make it logistically impossible for ambassadors and high commissioners to be accredited in more than one place at the same time and play their diplomatic role effectively in constant liaison with a number of different seats of accreditation within the UK, as well as with different embassies and consulates within the same country, etc., and vice-versa when it comes to the diplomatic dialogue between the UK and the different diplomatic representations, etc. which would be not only multiple, as they are today, but impossible to coordinate from a diplomatic liaison point of view.

A stable seat was therefore needed. As the Marshal of Diplomatic Corps is based at St James’s Palace, the Court of St James’s was chosen as the official place of accreditation, hence the appointment of all above-mentioned diplomats as as ambassador/ high-commissioner to the Court of St James’s where they are effectively accredited...

I would suggest therefore correcting this in the Political offices section, where it says "Portuguese Ambassador to the United Kingdom". The link could however be kept of course (as it is not directly related to the text). But the text itself for this political office should then read "Portuguese Ambassador to the Court of St James's". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.170.99.72 (talk) 22:23, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Melo?
I must say I never heard anyone talk about Pombal as "Melo"... And I'm afraid that applies to Portuguese, as well as English... I'm sure there must be some very strict criterion supporting the use of the last name, but quite frankly it just makes the article read very oddly at times... For anyone acquainted with the name Pombal (pretty much any Portuguese speaker who is remotely acquainted with the basics of Portuguese history, and there are about 300 million people in those circumstances), the rough equivalent of talking about "Melo" would be something like talking about "Smith", when referring to the Earl of Birkenhead, or like writing an article that's through and through about "Dudley", when in fact the subject in question is the Earl of Derby, etc. Again, I'm sure there's a good reason behind the "Melo"; it's just that no-one refers to Pombal as "Melo", but as Pombal; and I would say that regardless of the biographical passage and whether he had already been created marquis or not. While he was alive in fact, he was generally referred to as "Sebastião José", a mild form of mockery on the part of the high nobility, who thus disguised their tacit non-recognition of Pombal's rank with the excessive familiarity of calling him by two of his given names (as a parent would do presumably to a misbehaved child)...


 * Indeed. I will change it to Pombal Yosy (talk) 00:54, 21 March 2017 (UTC)